Goldsmiths, University of London, 13 June 2024.
Decadence prowls in the shadows of war, and exposes its contradictions. As a byword for decline, decadence is that which war is supposed to overcome. The destructive force of war empowers those who wage it, and is often seen as a corrective, in the eyes of protagonists, to the weakened moral backbone of a beleaguered nation. Decadence and adjacent concepts are routinely deployed in rhetoric intended to stoke the flames of less bloody but nonetheless aggressive ‘culture wars’ – be it in the condemnation of artists like Ron Athey on the floor of the US Senate (‘Congressional Record’, 1994), or in the grandstanding of politicians like Oliver Dowden, who, in February 2022 while serving as Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party in Britain, vilified the propagation of so-called ‘woke ideology’ as ‘a dangerous form of decadence’.
Chaos, conflict, and political antagonism on the global stage are perennial issues, but in recent months, in the wake of geopolitical crises, bloodshed at borders, and the unhappy renaissance of culture wars ahead of election campaigns, such turmoil appears to have reached fever pitch. What, then, might decadence have to offer to our understanding of the interplay between different kinds of conflict? How do armed conflicts play into the rhetoric of those looking to manufacture a culture war for political gain, and how might the waging of culture wars inform attempts to justify armed conflicts?
We invite contributors to respond to these questions and contexts – and those of their own suggestion – in a one-day symposium co-organised by the British Association of Decadence Studies (BADS) and the Decadence Research Centre (DRC) at Goldsmiths, University of London. We encourage proposals considering diverse forms of cultural expression including literature, poetry, theatre, live art, dance, film, music, and visual and material cultures, as well as a range of geographical and historical contexts, from antiquity to the present.
We welcome both conventional and unconventional presentation formats, including 20-minute papers, performance lectures, screenings, and panel proposals. The symposium will also include a roundtable discussion for which we invite 5-minute provocations that will serve as points of departure for discussion and debate. Abstracts of 300 words for papers and panels (and of 150 words for provocations) plus a brief biography should be sent to drc@gold.ac.uk by 25 March 2024.
Conference Organisers
Adam Alston (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Alice Condé (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Jane Desmarais (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Jessica Gossling (Goldsmiths, University of London)
